An analysis of the initial non-directive phase of person-centered therapy from the perspective of Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy

ABSTRACT The person-centered approach has been divided into five phases: non-directive, reflexive, experiential, collective or interhuman, and post-Rogerian, according to technical and epistemological criteria. We understand that each of these phases refers to a way to deal with alterity, or difference. This study aimed to analyze how difference may be explained in the non-directive phase of the person-centered approach. For a definition of alterity, we based our thinking on the work of Emmanuel Levinas. We found that denial of alterity was present in the objective search for regularities in the therapeutic relationship, emphasis on the technical, attempts at the social adaptation of clients, and the appreciation given to insight. We turned to the notion of ‘figures of alterity’: how a certain thought leads to a larger or smaller openness to experiencing a potential difference. We found that approaches to difference appeared through four figures of alterity: the Other of ignorance, the Other of the narrative, the Other of affect, and the Other of refraction.